Verdict: An instant Christmas classic.

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Filmmaker Jon Favreau has stuck his thumb into the maelstrom that is the holiday movie season and pulled out a big fat sugar plum of a Christmas picture. Done with a canny playfulness that nonetheless keeps the faith in all things Santa, "Elf" is a sure-thing Christmas perennial.

Buddy the elf (Will Ferrell) isn't like the other busy bees in Santa's workshop. For one thing, he's more than 6 feet tall. For another, well, as his adored Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) confesses, Buddy isn't an elf at all. He's a human who, as an abandoned infant, climbed into Santa's (Ed Asner) sack one Christmas Eve.

So Buddy bids his gingerbready, snow-globey North Pole home goodbye and sets off for a slightly less enchanted place: Manhattan. Luckily, the trip's not hard -- into the candy cane forest, past the sea of swirly, twirly gum drops and a short walk through the Lincoln Tunnel.

Buddy expects he and his long-lost dad will spend their time making snow angels, cuddling and eating spaghetti covered in marshmallows, pop tarts and Hershey syrup. However, Dad (James Caan) turns out to be the sort who usually ends up on Santa's naughty list. A bad-tempered publisher of children's books, he isn't exactly thrilled when a lunatic in a green jacket, yellow tights and shoes with turned-up toes turns up in his office and calls him Daddy.

"Elf" comes down to a basic fish-out-of-water tale, but it's adorned with so much Christmas good cheer that it's irresistible. As is Ferrell in a career-making role. With his curly hair and air of affable anarchy, he could be channeling Harpo Marx.

Zanily exuberant and wistfully naive, Buddy isn't just an overgrown elf; he's an overgrown child, embodying all the wonder and chestnut-roasting warmth of Christmastime. But while Buddy can be touching, Ferrell never loses sight of the character's manic energy and sugar-rush excitement. Briefly employed at Gimbels department store (where he meets and falls for Santa helper Zooey Deschanel), he's aghast when the store Santa (Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange) arrives. "You sit on a throne of lies!" he snarls.

The supporting cast adds to the general merriment. Newhart, so underused in movies, is deliciously deadpan, even with an oversized Ferrell sitting on his lap. Caan redeems a dozen bad performances as a harried businessman with a bah-humbug streak. Asner is just the kind of gruff but good-hearted fellow Santa should be. And not only is Deschanel a great choice over the usual sugar-plum-fairy blonde, she also gives a beautiful and sexy rendition of "Baby, It's Cold Outside."

Neophyte writer David Berenbaum adds all the right touches. When Buddy answers the phone at Caan's office, he asks the caller's favorite color. When he gets angry with himself, he spits out an accusing "cotton-headed ninny-muggins!" The ending tries too hard, but it's worth it to see Santa's sleigh careening through the concrete canyons of the Big Apple.

Like the stockings hung by the chimney in "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," "Elf" has been made with care. And a big, silly grin. It's the sort of holiday treat even a Grinch would love.